What is a Cultivator?
A cultivator is both a general term for an implement that assists in preparing soil for planting, and the name of four specific tools — a piece of machinery attached to a tractor, a small engine-propelled machine, a hand-action tool, and a traditional hand-tool. A cultivator is designed to remove weeds with shallow roots and to break up surface soil near plants for aeration. A cultivator can also be used to mix compost and fertilizer into the soil. Farm Equipment. A field cultivator, which has metal teeth to break up the soil, is made to be pulled by a tractor. The field cultivator mixes the soil while overturning weeds, killing them but leaving them in the soil to limit soil erosion. A disk cultivator, on the other hand, employs circular metal blades to destroy weeds, but doesn’t leave material on the surface in the same way. While the field or disk cultivator is used to prepare the entire field, sometimes following directly after the combine at harvest time, an in-row or row cultiva
• What is a disk? • What is a disk harrow? • What is a disk plow? • What is a cross-slot drill? • What is a harrow? • What is a moldboard plow? • What is a paraplow? • What is rod weeding? • What is a roller harrow? • What is a rotary plow? • What are shovels? • What is a slot mulcher? • What is a sweep plow? • What are sweeps? REFERENCE: Soils and our Environment 7th Edition, R.W. Miller & R.L. Donahue, pg. 414-418 ANALYSIS: • What is the purpose of tillage? To prepare an adequate seedbed and to control weeds, as well as to improve aeration, increase water infiltration, make furrows for irrigation, and bury crop residues. • What is a bedder? A sweep that looks somewhat like a small moldboard plow with the curved sides on both sides. It is used to build ridges in ridge-furrow cultivation. • What is a chisel? A narrow shank, usually with a narrow seep fastened to its tip. The chisel is pulled through the soil to “rip” it. • What is a chisel plow? Large chisels, usually about 0.6-1.0m (2
